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From: Robert Swotinsky MD
Password: orange
Date: 09 May 2007
Time: 09:51:22 -0700
Remote Name: 65.206.105.12
Guilty as charged.
K.W., thank you for your interest in the site and for taking time to post! I don't begrudge you or other nonprofessionals their questions and need to know. But, I only have so much time to spend on this site. I pay for this web site and spend a number of hours each week on it - non reimbursed hours. This site's purpose IS to serve professionals who have questions or are interested in reading Q&As posted by others. For those people, the site would be boring if it was filled with questions from the general public, which tend to be of three types:
1) "Why did I test positive when I don't use?"
2) "I used drugs last week, will I test positive tomorrow?"
2) "Don't you think it's wrong that the [so and so] did [this and that] to me?"
It could be that there are more people surfing the Internet for ways to beat drug tests than there are doctors looking for answers to MRO questions. By analogy, I point out that I wrote a book for doctors about how to properly do MRO work, and there are books (including one by a doctor) that sell far more copies and describe how to beat drug tests.
I created this discussion board a few years ago because I'd regularly get emails and phone calls from colleagues with drug and alcohol testing questions. This discussion board serves as a way to communicate with less time pressure (there's no one on the phone waiting for an answer). The site is a way to share information among colleagues. It's a bit of an ego kick and learning experience for me, and I and others who post to this site enjoy the comraderie. I'm told that some MROs check the site as a way of keeping up with current topics. If the general public finds this information interesting, too, fine. K.W., your (implicit) point about the Internet as a forum for open discussion and free speech is valid. But, not every site can cater to every person's needs. And, as evidenced by the recent flap over Don Imus being fired from NBC, we all have the right to say what we choose, but the person who pays for the media (whether it's a TV station or an Internet site) is not obliged to include everyone's communications. If I was a gud enough programmer, maybe I'd make this site fee-based or password-based. But until the site becomes real popular, or until I learn how to make it password based, this remains an open site and I delete the questions that don't fit the site's purpose. If they're not deleted quickly, they seem to attract additional, similar questions by others with similar concerns.